Russian relations, Trump and real estate deals

Palm Beach, Florida, will have its second president in part-time residency come January. Till then, there is no discounting the real estate relationship(s) Mr.Trump has had with rich Russians.

In the early 2000’s, Mr. T purchased a 6. 26 acre PB compound—that includes oceanfront property– for $41.4 million from the bankrupt Abe Gosman. According to stories gleaned from The Palm Beach Daily News, Gosman was “a health-care magnate and philanthropist” and had “declared voluntary bankruptcy in 2001, blaming chaos in the nursing home industry.”

A few years later, Trump sold the property for $95 million—more than double his cost– to an ownership company associated with Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev.

Since its purchase from Gosman, the property had been subdivided into three parcels.

Recently the Russian connection owners sold off one parcel of that compound—a 2.35-acre vacant lot with about 175 feet of beachfront— for $34 million.

The art of these deals? Buy low. Subdivide. Sell high.

(Dear reader: Sure hope I got all those figures, people, statistics right. As we are all learning, following a Trump transaction of any sort is a lot like trying to follow a spaghetti graph.)

Market Quick Glance

Stocks are up a tad. Bond prices down. And the future with America’s first celebrity president-elect in decades is scaring the bejesus out of folks at home and abroad.

So what are investors supposed to do? The answer, as always, depends upon your own personal needs, age and how fat your bank/retirement accounts are as life isn’t likely to get any cheaper under a Trump presidency.

With that visual in mind, below are the weekly and 1-year performance results for four popular stock indices along with their respective P/E Ratios based on prices at the close of business on Friday, Nov.18, 2016. All, according to Bloomberg.

-Indices:

-Dow Jones +10.98% YTD up from last week’s 10.70%

1yr Rtn +8.74% down from last week’s 12.23%

P/E Ratio 17.96 down from last week’s 17.97

-S&P 500 +8.87% YTD up from last week’s 7.92%

1yr Rtn +6.74% down from last week’s 9.34%

P/E Ratio 20.37 up from week’s 20.21

–NASDAQ +7.58% YTD up from last week’s 5.81%

1yr Rtn +5.66% down from last week’s 7.71%

P/E Ratio 30.79 up from last week’s 30.31

–Russell 2000 +17.33% YTD up from last week’s 14.34%

1yr Rtn +13.66% up from last week’s 13.55%

P/E Ratio 46.90 up from last week’s 45.14

-Mutual funds

In a sketchy market the average U.S. Diversified Equity Fund gained some ground over the week and was up 8.34% at the close of business on Thursday, Nov.17, 2016, according to Lipper.

Small-Cap Value Funds continued to do well, up on average 20.12% followed once again by Equity Leverage Funds, up 16.45%.

Precious Metals Equity Funds continue to slide, now averaging +57.92%

Latin American Funds gained a little bit — up on average 25.18% while European Region Funds are down 5.70 percent year-to-date.

In the bond world, the average General Domestic Taxable Fund was up.6.70 year-to-date while the average World Income Fund up a bit less at 6.50%.

Visit www.allaboutfunds.com for more information about how various equity and fixed-income funds have rewarded investors over the short-and long-term, based upon Lipper data. Short-term meaning weekly and monthly performance returns; longer-term includes quarterly, year-to-date, 1-yr, 2-yr, 3-yr and 5-yr returns.

•Turkey: 69 cents a pound. Good company: Uncalculatable.

Word is this year’s Thanksgiving meal is supposed to cost a few pennies less than it did last year. I’ve heard something like 25 cents less. Big woo.

I also heard TV talking heads reporting that this year $50 is enough to cover the cost of Thanksgiving Day meal for 10. Really? Not at my house. Or anyone else’s that I know.